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Senegal has a diverse and active pop music industry. Certain artists such as Youssou Ndour and Baaba Maal have widespread international acclaim. Ismael Lô, Cheikh Lô, and Thione Seck also have earned loyal international followings.
Senegal is mainly associated with the mbalax style of music, a marriage of Wolof sabar drumming and Cuban sounds. Mbalax artists include Ismaël Lô, Jimi Mbaye, El Hadj N`Diaye, Bu-Baca Diop and the groups Etoile de Dakar, Tidiane Gaye & le Dieuf Dieul, Alioune Kassé and the Kassé Stars, Touré Kunda, Lemzo Diamono. Some of the most popular popular women singers in Senegal sing Mouride praise songs in the mbalax style such as Kine Lam, Coumba Gawlo and Fatou Gewel. Their fame among Mourides is such that their faces appear in wall murals to honour their sect. A new generation of mbalax singers coming up include Alioune Mbaye Nder.
Currently rap music or hip hop as it is locally known is big in Senegal. Senegal has spearheaded the burgeoning African rap movement and filled an obvious gap in the market between American and French rap. Hip hop has been around in Senegal from 1982, about the same time it reached Europe. In Senegal hip hop began among the children of the affluent and privileged in one of Dakars most prestigious high schools - Sacré Coeur, contrasting with America where rap grew from an underworld of ghetto kids and street hustlers. It began by imitating the latest craze coming out of America, fed by weekly dance competitions at the school. At the start rap was in French. Kool Kock 6 of Pee Froiss was the first to rap in Wolof and hip hop went on to develop into something really Senegalese, rap flavoured with reggae. Senegalese rap often includes traditional instruments such as the kora, djembe, balaphone and xalam. In contrast to the violence and obscenity of the American B-Boys, Senegalese rap serves as a means to improve the image of local culture.
The NGO Enda Tiers Monde recently counted some 3,000 rap bands in Senegal! Best known internationally are Positive Black Soul and Daara J. For a taste of the Dakar rap scene consider getting one of the compilation albums which include a good sampling of Senegalese rap such as Da Hop (Jololi 7243 8488162 7), a compilation of samples of a dozen different groups, Africa Raps (Trikont US-294) Senerap: Freestyle Vol 1 (1997) and 2 (1998). Other groups worth checking out are Pee Froiss, Bamba J. Fall, Bideew Bou Bess and Djollof. New music continues to be produced much of it fiercely political, Afrocentric and highly moralistic denouncing injustice, corruption, scheming politicians and the abuse of power.
In the past few years hip hop has lost some of its popularity. Some of this decline is associated with violence at concerts which parallels the emergence of the miltant group Rap'Adio. They represent the impetuous New School of Senegalese youth, set to confront and ready to perturb.
Catherine Vuylsteke gives an interesting report on rap in Senegal titled The honorary revolutionaries. Trikont also gives a bit of a history in Africa Raps. Wikipedia have an article on Senegalese hip hop.
Reggae would have to be the music that Africa is famous for, and Senegal is no exception. Reggae artists from Senegal include Adioa, Big Mô.
Other Senegalese artists and groups of interest include the afro-jazz artists like Idrissa Diop and Wasis Diop, kora players Vieux Diop and Doudou Cissoko, Bu-Baca Diop, Souleyman Faye, Omar Ka and the Fula band, folk musicians like the Guissé brothers